Viewpoint Unpopular roleplay opinions?

[BackSet]

How is knowing a character's weight more important than knowing the basics of their personality?

It was a suggestion. I don't actually put a character's weight on my CSes.

I think the point is when was the last time you actually followed the personalities on your CS.

 

[Uriels-Fire]

I still don't understand slow burn. I'm not a romance fan and that might be part of why... I just can't stand the waiting. I sit there like "Just frikken kiss already!"

I think the issue there isn't that it's slow burn, it's that the candle isn't getting lit in the first place because the plot/the writers are too jittery to strike a match on the first or second go at it.

Idk about anyone else, but in my experience when people say slow burn, they tend to drag out the getting together part as long as possible and then speedrun the actual relationship once some sort of confession of attraction or feelings finally gets made.

Pz It's freaking weird and moderately annoying.

 

[Crayons]

It was a suggestion. I don't actually put a character's weight on my CSes.

I think the point is when was the last time you actually followed the personalities on your CS.

I don't think it matters if you "follow" it, and in fact you shouldn't follow it, but it is a starting point to work from.

Well this discussion has been had a hundred times on here. You all know what I feel about it. I just wondered what the heck people do want on a sheet if they don't want a character's background or personality. And your answer was height and weight... which ... lets face it, do not influence gameplay or writing at all unless your character is over 7 foot or weighs the same as a sumo wrestler.

 

[BackSet]

I was really only playing devil's advocate considering that I I greatly enjoy writing personality sections.

Of course, my favorite section is and always will be the theme song.

 

[BackSet]

So, here's an actual on topic post for this thread instead of my usual screwing around (shocking, I know):

I hate family roleplays. I don't know why I hate them but they just give me the jitters or however that goes.

 

[BlossomsOfRainbows]

School RPs can be fun, if executed correctly. I know they get a lot of hate. I know they get boring fast. But if done right I think they can thrive.

 

[BackSet]

School roleplays are a guilty pleasure of mine.

 

[Murdergurl]

I don't like personality or biography sections in profiles. I'm so much less likely to want to join a RP if it includes a biography section.

I know I'm not the only one who has changed aspects about my character the more I got a feel for playing them and the more I got to know the world all around. I've written profiles that six months later are no longer accurate because the character took me in a different direction.

Plus, bios and personality sections just make submitting profiles a longer ordeal. As a GM I just want it to be as minimal as possible and learn about the characters through writing.

In groups, a basic CS pretty much always consisted of backstory. That's pretty much the point of a character sheet. Deets like Height, weight, eye and hair color are extra (and usually summed up with the character preference pic anyway). The entire point of a CS are all those details you don't like. I imagine that 1x1 RPs dont really need all this. But in a group, it's pretty important, imo.

As far as updating a CS... well, yeah. As you involve your character (or just work on them more) they evolve into something else. I've had some characters for almost 10 years. Their CS has of course changed over that time. That's to be expected. Characters, like people, grown and change. Nothing stays static.

I think the point is when was the last time you actually followed the personalities on your CS.

Um... always? That's kind of the point of writing it in.

 

[Jannah]

School RPs can be fun, if executed correctly. I know they get a lot of hate. I know they get boring fast. But if done right I think they can thrive.

If they have some kind of fantastical element then they can occasionally be okay. Realistic school RP's I detest with a passion, though.

 

[BackSet]

That's kind of the point of writing it in.

Personality sections are purely theoretical. Characters are organic, they change as writing goes on, you may have intended to play them one way but you end up playing them another way. And no, I don't mean character development.

 

[SP3CT3R]

I don't like personality or biography sections in profiles. I'm so much less likely to want to join a RP if it includes a biography section.

I know I'm not the only one who has changed aspects about my character the more I got a feel for playing them and the more I got to know the world all around. I've written profiles that six months later are no longer accurate because the character took me in a different direction.

Plus, bios and personality sections just make submitting profiles a longer ordeal. As a GM I just want it to be as minimal as possible and learn about the characters through writing.

I think personalities and bios are pretty important since they allow the other players (Or at the very least, the GM) to know what they're dealing with and make sure there aren't any edgelords or clashing opinions between characters, but I see where you're coming from. The main enemy is people setting arbitrarily high minimum lengths for either, since personalities are easier to show than to tell most of the time, and I like making characters with simple backstories that are hard to stretch into four large paragraphs. I'm still haunted by that one time I threw in an attempt on a character's life by a crazy neighbor to meet the requirements.

 

[Jannah]

The person who stated that personalities change as the character is written does have a point. It's precisely for that reason I'm not a huge fan of character sheets, or at least not super detailed ones. I have written characters where their personality was literally nothing like what I had initially put in the sheet. I really need to get a feel for a character and their setting before I commit to them being one way over another.

 

[BackSet]

I have a name, you know.

 

[Shy2Infinity]

I think character sheets are hella important, not for anyone else (though I still show them to my partners so they know what they're dealing with) but for me. Because I have a horrible memory, to the point that I've been known to forget my own characters names. I've also been known to get many of my own characters confused with each other. And I mean, I feel like it's important to write down important facts about your own characters so that you don't forget them in the midst of the roleplay. Yeah, height and weight are hella unimportant in the grand scheme of things. But things like personality and backstory...?

Yeah, you can make the argument that characters change over time but in my opinion, that's what makes it far more important that you write it down. I've definitely had characters change over time but that's kind of the point of a character sheet, no? Working out what your character is like and detailing their changes over time. You don't have to fill them out right away, take it from someone that still has two character sheets that are still works in progress. Character sheets are simply there so you can figure out more about your character.

Though I think character sheets are far more important to GMs than they are for solo players to be fair...

 

[BackSet]

I love making character sheets but half the time I kind of forget them unless I'm in a Pokemon rp and need to check what moves my Pokemon has.

 

[Shy2Infinity]

I love writing character sheets as well, though I can be lazy because I make it a lot more work than it has to be...

 

[BackSet]

"How much information do you want about my character?"
"I don't know, just a couple of standard traits and a personality I guess."
"What's that you say? You want a four paragraph long backstory explaining how they came to be the way that they are as detailed in my three paragraph personality section, both of which influence how they dress which you can find out by reading my four paragraph appearance section?"
"Huh? That's not what I said at all!"
"Too bad, in the space of you saying that sentence I did exactly what I just described only it was seven four and seven paragraphs respectively instead."

 

[Shy2Infinity]

Gods, don't come @ me like this lolol Though I mostly roleplay with already established friends. Friends that do the same exact bs as me, so I'm not sure if I've ever had that kind situation happen lolol

 

[BackSet]

I have entered roleplays where the character sheet was a mess. It was short, boring, lacking in important things. So I took that short, boring character sheet, added my own sections and a light sprinkling of basic bbcode and then gave that instead of the CS I was supposed to give because it was a bad CS and I can't stand bad CSes.

 

[Shy2Infinity]

I can also understand wanting to make things pretty. I've discovered the beauty of kaomoji and I'm not ever going back xP I love my signature. But also, I've had bad experiences with group roleplays, so I'm not sure if I'll ever jump into one again

 

[BackSet]

Well, I don't go that far. It's still pretty basic appearance-wise but it's easy to navigate and has all the right sections (can you believe there are people who leave out the history section).

 

[Shy2Infinity]

M a n. I genuinely can't understand that. In my opinion, that's the most important part! Yeah, if it's just 1x1, you could make the excuse that you'll tell your partner in pm but with group roleplays? GMs can better make your history apart of the roleplay if they know what your character's backstory is!

 

[Murdergurl]

Personality sections are purely theoretical. Characters are organic, they change as writing goes on, you may have intended to play them one way but you end up playing them another way. And no, I don't mean character development.

IF you put a personality section (because I do believe they should be totally optional) it is because you intend to play them that way. There was another discussion somewhere about Personality sections in a CS some weeks ago. I tried to find it for a link, but I dunno where it went.

Anyhow, IF you decide to go ahead and put a personality section about your character, it is because you intend to play your character as the designation you write out. Or even just bullet points, as I've seen and used myself. BUT if you want your character to be mutable, simply dont include it and you can play them however you feel for any given RP. Personally, I make characters with a personality derived from their background. So it pretty much stays the same because their history stays the same.

If the GM is asking for a personality section, fill it out accordingly to how you want to play them for that RP. It doesn't have to reflect them from how you had written them before. Most of the time, characters have to be tweaked in minor (or major) ways to get them to fit into a setting anyway.

 

[BittyBobcat]

Faceclaims are unnecessary and kind of uncomfortable. I personally use them only because most rps here require them, but I've always felt odd about them. Plus, if it's a realistic faceclaim, then it feels weird to use an actual person's face for an rp. And, frankly, searching for them is pretty annoying (which is why I usually determine appearance last). I kinda wish that less rps here would require faceclaims, and would allow things like just written descriptions instead.

 

[Jannah]

Faceclaims are unnecessary and kind of uncomfortable. I personally use them only because most rps here require them, but I've always felt odd about them. Plus, if it's a realistic faceclaim, then it feels weird to use an actual person's face for an rp. And, frankly, searching for them is pretty annoying (which is why I usually determine appearance last). I kinda wish that less rps here would require faceclaims, and would allow things like just written descriptions instead.

For actors it's kind of fair game, considering they portray different roles all the time. I just think of using them as a FC as them taking on yet another role.